Right whale calf sighted off Florida

Mary Landers @MaryLandersSMN

Monday

Jan 7, 2019 at 11:11 AM

A right whale calf spotted off Neptune Beach, Fla., late last month offers researchers "some glimmer of hope after no calves last year," said Clay George, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Observers with Coastwise Consulting aboard the dredge Bayport spotted the calf and its mother about six nautical miles off Neptune Beach on Dec. 28, catching only a glimpse of the calf that was less than five days old.

The Sea to Shore Alliance aerial survey team saw the mother whale twice last month, on Dec. 17 and Dec. 23, each time without a calf.

The mother, identified as No. 2791, is at least 22 years old and has given birth twice before, most recently 10 years ago.

Right whales are identified by the unique patterns of rough white patches on their skin, called callosities. Some of the whales have nicknames, as well as catalog numbers, but this mother does not.

An estimated 410 right whales remain, making them highly endangered. They usually give birth off the coast of Georgia and Florida from about December to April, but last year they didn't.

No calves were spotted in the 2017-18 calving season and the whales also suffered from a higher than usual number of recorded deaths from entanglement in fishing gear, ship strikes and undetermined causes.

George said researchers will need to see a lot more calves before they consider this season a success.

"If you assume there are 410 left, they need to crank out 16 or more per year to replace themselves," he said.

Right whales got their name from being the "right" whale to hunt. They are docile, hug the coast, are rich with blubber and float when dead. Whalers nearly drove them extinct by the early 1900s, but protections, including vessel speed restrictions, seemed to be working, with the population increasing to about 500 in the first decade of this century.

In the past few years, though, that trend has been reversing.

This year's aerial surveys began around Dec. 1, with teams in Georgia and Florida flying as much as weather conditions allow from about midway on the east coast of Florida up through Georgia.

Along with the mother and calf sighted, the teams have recorded six other breeding-age females, George said Thursday.

It's hard to tell if the bus-sized whales are pregnant, but time and continued aerial surveys will tell how many more calves the season brings.

"We just have to wait and see if they rebound this year," George said.